Yale Food
by Simply Cynical
Summary: Updated 5.30.06. For Kara.
1. Chapter 1

TITLE: Yale Food

RATING: Let's go with PG-13 or T or whatever…

BACKGROUND: Luke's Diner is near Yale, not in Star's Hollow. SO Rory and Lorelai grew up drinking coffee at Weston's. Everything is the same save anything relating to Luke, Jess, or Liz; who, of course, have no history with either Gilmore girl.

SUMMARY: LM, LD -or LuRo- in other words.

DISCLAIMER: If I owned them I wouldn't need a disclaimer, now would I?

A/N: No flames please, but CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is always welcome!

Chapter One

Rory sank onto her new mattress smiling weakly, "Copper boom," she muttered, and lay flat out on her stomach. A sickly almost vomit-y feeling coated her stomach, and a bile-y, metallic-y feeling rose in her throat and she swallowed hard, grabbing her pager.

She quickly dialed her mother's pager number, and for the second time in two days, dialed in a "911" page. She regretted writing it even before she sent it.

Sure, Lorelai would come –again- but did Rory really want her to? Rory sighed, the tightness in her stomach loosening slightly as she realized that she didn't actually need her mother.

Well, at least not right now… Rory sat up and scraped her hair off her face. What to do… What, to, do…

She fiddled with her pager. Hmm… Maybe she could go for a walk… She nibbled on her lower lip, then again maybe not…

Rory groaned, she was on the fence, maybe it was time for a good old fashioned Pro/Con list… She shook her head, Nah; that'd take to long; all she needed was one good shove in either direction.

Her head shot up as her room mate walked in, "I can't believe that you needed your mother to spend the night your first time at Yale!" Paris crowed.

"Huh," Rory scoffed, and swung her feet to the ground, "Thanks, Paris." She walked quickly around the room looking for socks and shoes.

"I mean, _really_, I never knew you were so… Lame."

Rory smiled a false grin at the wall and grabbed her car keys, too. For some reason, a nice _long_ drive sounded awfully appealing right now.

Rory was just about to leave campus when she realized that she needed coffee.

Rule number seven of the Gilmore handbook clearly states that every roadtrip -no matter the length- required two things: tunes and coffee.

Rory groaned and began to scan her surroundings for coffee, she was way to far from the library coffee cart, but screw good coffee, any coffee at this point would probably tide her over.

She was about to give up on the road trip when a sign caught her eye.

"Luke's" was written on a giant coffee mug shaped sign... She smiled and turned her car towards it. Rory ended up parking three shop windows away from the diner, and as she walked towards it she noticed a William's Hardware sign above the same window as Luke's mug.

Her brow furrowed in cunfusion, but a glint of curiosity lit her eyes as she pushed her way in.

All of a sudden Rory was transported to a much more Gilmore much less girly version of Weston's, except this place had real food -no cake- and better smelling coffee a tug pulling n her heart strings as she thought of her mother.

This place was, in a word,_ perfect_.

She skirted around the only two empty tables, opting instead for the last empty counter seat.

As she waited for a server she pulled out Ready, Okay! and set her bag on the ground. She hookedd a scuffed brown leather Mary-Jane through the handle, and then deciding that it was probably safer to hold it under her feet, settled it between her long denim clad legs instead.

She had been reading only a moment when a deep masculine voice interupted her, "Reading is sexy?"

Rory looked up into the stranger's face, a jolt of arousal coating her system, then smirked flipantly as she used the pattented Lorelai Gilmore hair toss, "You think so?"

The unshaven manlooked surprised for a moment, and then he gestured to her shirt with a blush, "I, uh, I meant your shirt."

Rory channled the spirit of her mother after a shocked moment, and said, "Well, I guess that means you read it, and I'd have to say," she blatently checked out as much of his broad body as possible, "Aside from the flannel and backwards hat, I'd have to say it's right." Upon seeing his shocked face, Rory almost appologized for hitting on him, especially when she realized that he was _at least_ twenty years older than her, but instead she forced a laugh, "Sorry, it was just too easy. Lorelai Gilmore, but you can call me Rory."

"Luke... Luke Danes," he said, reaching across the counter, and she shook his hand, tingles flying up her arm from his touch. "What can I get'cha?"

"Coffee, please."

"Here, or, uh, to-go?"

Rory looked around and saw the diner was begining to empty slightly. "Here please. Ooo, and can I get some company with that?"

Somehow Rory managed to keep her blush at bay -what the _hell_ was she doing- as she waited for his response.

But for some reason Luke just smiled, "I suppose I can spare a few."

Rory smiled to herself and buried her nose in her book.

WBggWBggWB

Rory sighed and streched, satisfied. She reached down and slid the now finished copy of Ready, Okay! back into her bag.

She smiled again and reached for her coffee. Even though her hand just touched the mug, she could feel that it was ice cold. Rory glanced at the clock and was shocked to find that it was 9:30 p.m.

She had spent almost _twelve_ hours in a strange diner off campus!

She quickly picked up her bag and looked around for Luke. No such luck, he was no where in sight.

Rory grabbed a pen, and before she could talk her self out of it, scrawled him a quick note on a napkin:

_Even with the flannel I'd say it were true, but your hat is falling apart! _

See you later? Rory

She lay a dollar on top of the note so he was sure to find it and walked out.

As she drove back to the dorm room, Rory mentally berated herself.

What had she been thinking? She had ignored him all afternoon and then left him a flirty note? Plus, he was at least twenty years older than her! Maybe she should hook the diner man up wit hher mother...

Rory snorted, if Holly-"weird" ever remade "The Graduate" so that Ben ended up with Mrs. Robinson, she was pretty sure that she knew how Elaine would feel.

She smackedher head on the steering wheel as she pulled to a stop. Why was she thinking like this? He wasn't hers! Never had been, probably never would be.

As Rory drove back to her room she tried to ignore the ache that came with her last thought.


	2. Chapter 2

TITLE: Yale Food

RATING: Let's go with PG-13 or T or whatever…

BACKGROUND: Luke's Diner is near Yale, not in Star's Hollow. SO Rory and Lorelai grew up drinking coffee at Weston's. Everything is the same save anything relating to Luke, Jess, or Liz; who, of course, have no history with either Gilmore girl.

SUMMARY: LM, LD -or LuRo- in other words.

DISCLAIMER: If I owned them I wouldn't need a disclaimer, now would I?

A/N: No flames please, but CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is always welcome!

Chapter Two

"I don't get it," Pars said for what was quite possibly the eighth hundredth time in three days.

"You don't get what?" Rory asked, practically crossing her fingers and she hoped that it was something new as they headed back towards their dorm after their first real day of school.

"I don't get how you -the girl who made her mother sleep over her first night at Yale- found a new crush her second day here."

Rory's face heated up, "I do _not_ have a new crush."

"Oh, yeah?" Paris challenged, "Then why are you blushing?"

Rory jammed her hands into her pockets and fingered her keys with her left. "You know what?" she asked, pulling her wallet out of her bag and cramming it into her tight back pocket. "Take this back to the room," she shoved the bag at Paris, "I'm going out."

Paris took the "offered" bag, was silent a moment, and then shouted down the hall, "Say 'Hi.' To lover boy for me!"

If Rory Gilmore ever flicked people off this would have been the time to do it; alas, she doesn't, so she didn't.

When Rory was driving she passed a novelty shop, stopped and decided to give her Lorelai-worthy gift idea.

WBggWBggWB

Rory inhaled deeply and slid out of her seat clutching the gift in her hand.

As she walked in, she realized that Luke was nowhere to be seen.

"You look a little lost, can I help you?" A woman with curly red hair asked as she stepped out from behind the counter.

"Uh, maybe, I was looking for Luke?"

The woman's face brightened immediately. "Oh, do you know Luke well?"

"We're, uh, yeah, we're friends."

"Well, any friend of Luke's…" She trailed off, "I'm Rachael, Luke's girlfriend."

"Oh…" Rory's heart sank, but she wasn't that surprised; of course a man that good looking would have a girlfriend. "Could you give him something for me?"

"Sure."

Rory crammed the plain blue ball cap -still sweaty from where she had bed clutching it so tightly- into Rachael's hand and ran toward the door.

"Wait! I don't know your name!"

"Yeah, but he will!"

Rory ran back to her car and sank into her seat, sniffling softly. "Cut it out," she commanded herself, "It's no big deal… I don't even know him that well…" She sniffed again, and then rested her head on the steering wheel to gather herself.

WBggWBggWB

"So, how's lover boy?" Paris asked as Rory walked into the dorm half an hour later.

"He's got a girlfriend," she called back, burying her face in her pillows.

WBggWBggWB

It was at least a week before Rory could work up enough curiosity to cover her childish heartbreak to go back to Luke's, and she did so telling herself that she had to at least try a cup of coffee before never going back.

The only empty parking spot within a five-block radius was right in front of the entrance to the diner, and she waited about five minutes before opening her car door and stepping out onto that fate-filled side walk.

Rory took a deep breath before she opened the door. The place was pretty busy, but she still managed to find an empty table to sit and study at.

She had pulled out her i-book and booted it up before Luke walked over, "So, whadda ya think?"

Rory studied Luke's masculine arms and his broad shoulders and let her eyes rove slowly over his scruffy face before they finally landed on his bright blue new cap. "I think I w as right…" her voice came out as a husky whisper, not at all like the normal tone she had intended to use.

His cheek's tinged slightly, and he pulled out a notebook and said, "So, uh, what can I get'cha?"

"Well," Rory smiled up at him, "I've been dying to try a cu of coffee."

"That stuff'll kill you some day," he said walking away.

"Great sales pitch," Rory called enthusiastically to his retreating back.

He dropped it off a moment later, but she barely registered his presence as she read the latest e-mail from her mother.

When she was done, she couldn't see Luke so she shrugged and took a sip of coffee. Rory almost moaned in pleasure as the hot and heavenly beverage rolled over her tongue and down her throat. She smiled contentedly and began to write.

_Hey, Mom-_

_I miss you, but not enough to make you stay the night again. However, if you wanted to come to dinner tonight, I know of this great diner off campus. It makes the best coffee…_


	3. Chapter 3

**DEDICATION: To the one and only -the bestest- **potostfbeyeluvr. **Thanks again, Kara! Here's to you!**

SUMMARY: LM, LD -or LuRo- in other words.

DISCLAIMER: If I owned them I wouldn't need a disclaimer, now would I?

A/N: No flames please, but CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is always welcome!

Chapter Three

It was around ten o'clock when Lorelai finally replied.

_Hey, babe._

_Sorry I didn't check my e-mail sooner, but Max took me out for dinner. It was a surprise, and he picked me up right from the (Dragonfly) Inn. Maybe tomorrow?_

_Sookie said to say hello, _and_ guess what she did today…_

Rory looked up from her laptop to find a slightly darkened empty diner. Her mind raced, _What the hell? Where was Luke?_

She stood and grabbed her empty coffee mug; as long as she was here she might as well make the best of it. She walked behind the counter and filled her mug, inhaling the dark fumes.

Just as she was relaxing into the deep beverage Luke came bursting out from behind the curtain that 'hid' the entrance to his apartment. "I'm not repainting this place, Rachael!"

"Luke," Rachael sighed, "Faded paint is a bad reflection on this place."

"Whatever happened to giving up?" Luke asked rhetorically as he refilled Rory's mug when she sat down by the register. "Do you want anything else?"

"Uh, yes I do. I want to know why you won't paint this place?" Rachael nodded in agreement, but this conversation was clearly just between Rory and Luke now.

"Painting's a pain. I'd have to close the place for a day, which I can't afford, or paint it in the middle of the night which I don't want to because I hate painting."

"Ok, how about this? I'll help you because I love to paint."

"You do?"

"Yes, I do."

"You love it?"

"I want to marry it," Rory clutched her mug and smiled sweetly.

"You have strange passions.

"I like washing dishes too," Rory shrugged. "I'm multifaceted abnormal."

"Ah come on, we'll drink a couple of coffees and we'll sing some painting songs."

Luke leaned across the counter, "Painting songs?"

Rory nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah! Painting songs like, um…you know the songs that goes, um…'Grab your brush and grab your rollers, all you kids and all you… bowlers, we're going paintin' today!'. Say yes or there's another verse," she warned.

"Well I guess maybe if…I had help."

"Really? Oh my God that's wonderful!" Rachael's eyes lit up, but Luke didn't notice; he was to busy drowning in Rory's crystalline eyes.

WBggWBggWB

"Now, this is another way to go. It's sort of a French bistro kind of look," Rory said, trying to show Luke paint samples the next day at the diner.

"This isn't a French bistro."

"Really? Huh, it's amazing the things you learn when you bother to listen."

"Which you usually don't?"

"Yes, but then I don't have a lot of useless information intruding in my brain."

"Thank God."

"Now, if you wanted to do more warm, golden Tuscan countryside -"

"Then I'd go to Italy," he said and then turned to some customers, "Here I'll wrap this."

"We could also go with a pastel-y English country-garden theme. Oh, maybe we could add a little stenciling on the ceiling."

"No stenciling," Luke shook his head.

"Excuse me, do you even know what stenciling is?"

"Does Martha Stewart do it?"

"Yes."

"No stenciling."

Rory rolled her eyes and pulled out a new sample, "Well, what about…"

WBggWBggWB

"Are you ready to talk paint?" asked, setting her laptop bag on the counter.

"No," Luke said, looking over at the empty diner.

"Good," she said, ignoring his noncommittal answer. " 'Cause I've got all the choices set up. And while any one of them would work, I think this combo is currently my favorite."

"Oh."

"See, imagine - this will be for the walls, and this would be for the trim - the edging around the doors and the windows -"

"I know what the trim is."

"Ok. The colors are actually quite similar to what you have here now but they're just a little richer, a little warmer. What do you think?"

"Well…"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," she turns the lights down. "Huh? A little ambiance?"

"This is a diner, we don't do ambiance."

"Alright, one argument at a time. So what do you think?"

"Honestly?"

She nodded enthusiastically, "Yep."

"I have no idea. You like it?"

"Yeah."

"Ok."

"Good."

"What are you doing?" Rory asked as he walked over to the door

"That's it," he said and flipped the OPEN sign. "We're closed for the night."

"You know, listen, since you have to take everything off the walls anyways, now might be a really good time to decide what stuff you're going to keep and what stuff you're going to get rid off."

"Everything stays."

"Ok, there is a plastic dancing pork chop that says…"

"Everything stays."

" 'I lost my head over a good chop, you should too'."

"Everything stays."

"Ok - everything stays." Rory smile was small but true, she was secretly proud that he was keeping it all. She loved it this way just as much as he did obviously.

"You know this place hasn't been painted since my dad was alive."

"No, I didn't know that." Rory was so shocked to have Luke open up to her that she didn't mention that she never even knew that his dad had dies, or even owned the place… That explained the 'William's Hardware' sign though.

"He painted it once before he opened it, and once more when the roof caved in one winter. I think that's probably it."

She looked around, "The paint lasted a long time. He got his money's worth."

"Yeah. He really loved this place, you know? The store was his life - mine too I guess. I spent every minute I wasn't in school in here. I spent a lot minutes I was supposed to be in school in here too."

"How come you opened a diner? Why didn't you keep it a hardware store?"

"I don't know. I didn't love the hardware business the way my dad did, and you know, I knew how to cook, so I just thought a diner would be more…" Luke struggled to pick the right word, finally landing on, "fun."

"That's a hard word for you to say."

He chuckled, relaxing completely, "Yeah. I just always wanted to work here. Just where dad did."

"God that's nice - the be so…I don't know - connected to your dad. That's - I would have loved that."

Luke studied her for a moment, wondering what he didn't know, and wondering why he was so desperate to know it. He looked around nervously, as if she could hear his thoughts and changed the topic. "You know, I still think there's still a spot on the wall somewhere where my dad took an order one day when he ran out of paper."

Rory's face lit up, "Really? Where?"

"I don't know," he was surprised and please to find that she cared.   
Behind the counter maybe. Next to the door…on the right side."

Rory crawled along the floor, "Oh! Here it is. Three hammers, Phillips-head screw driver…" she trailed off, feeling Luke's comforting presence behind her. She looked over her shoulder at him, and watched his lips as he finished reading the order, "And three boxes of nails - in assorted sizes."

"Wow," she said, her heart pounding from his closeness.

Luke shrugged, thinking she was talking about the order, "I've seen it from time to time. Yeah, well I guess it is time for a little spruce."

Rory watched his face, "Yeah, it is… But let's not spruce this particular spot."

"That sounds good," Luke nodded, his lips so close to hers as they both leaned toward the order.

"Ok." Rory said, her mouth dry, as she spoke to fill the silence.

"So…" Luke said, not putting any room between them.

"So…" Rory whispered back, tipping her head up so she could meet his eyes, her hair cascading off her delicate features. Luke smiled and brushed some bangs on her face and hooked it behind her ear. Rory blushed cutely, and tears began to drip down Rachael's face as she stood on the stoop, one hand on the diner door; frozen in time as she watched Luke and Rory's world meld down to the two of them as their eyes locked on each other.


End file.
